Flight Of The Puffin

“I eye that lady’s shiny car through the window—there’s no way she knows what we need better than we do.”

Jack’s upbringing and living circumstances (being in a rural area) led to an isolated and narrow way of thinking. Even though Ms. Duxbury doesn’t do anything wrong, Jack feels like she’s violating his space and asking too much of the school. He sees her as different because of what she has and where she’s from, and this is largely due to Jack wanting to be like his dad, who holds these views. Jack believes that he’s standing up to a bully but is instead just fighting a battle that doesn’t need to be fought.

“The other kids at school form a triangle. But me? I am a point in space.”

Vincent sees triangles in everything and, in this metaphor, compares his peers at school to groups of kids that form a triangle, and he feels like he’s somewhere outside it. He doesn’t feel like he fits in anywhere and continues to refer to himself this way until he meets T.

“I look in the mirror. The shirt clearly sends the message, Don’t expect me to be like anyone else. It’s perfect.”

Vincent is proud of who he is and wants to show the world that he loves puffins, so he wears a shirt with puffins on it. Even though he has outgrown the shirt, Vincent goes to school feeling confident that he’s prioritizing self-expression and pride, thematically reflecting Self-Preservation and Being Oneself. Although nobody accepts him, Vincent is glad that he’s different from everyone else.

“All around town, bushes just like this, with those yellow flowers, are blooming. But this one is still sealed up tight.”

Libby experiences another moment when she relates to the flowers growing around her. She sees that most are fully in bloom, but one is still closed, and she wonders if it’s easier to be that way. These metaphors follow Libby throughout the story as she learns to use them to create cards and help make others happy. She ultimately decides that it’s more difficult to be herself but that doing so is worth the challenge.

“I wish I could run inside and tell him that I know what it feels like to look up into the eyes of the person who is supposed to love you most and wonder if they do. I pull out my index card that tells me that I’m amazing. I let out a long breath as I look at it. He needs it more than I do.”

When Libby sees Joey outside the dentist’s office, crying and not wanting to go in, she identifies with his feelings of powerlessness and not being understood by his mother. In this moment, Libby’s decision sparks unexpected change and growth both in herself and in those she affects. Small acts of kindness often seem minor at first but can ripple out in significant ways, thematically reflecting The Great Impact of Small Acts.

“I walk to school over the waves of the Seattle hills. Up and down. Through the fog. Through the rain. Riding wave after wave. Just like a good puffin.”

Vincent feels confident in his puffin shirt, and after learning how puffins ride the waves using their wings, he decides to adopt the same attitude. This is Vincent’s way of standing his ground in the face of bullying, thematically highlighting The Importance of Standing Up to Bullies, and is the beginning of a process of discovery in which he finds the courage to confront Cal while no longer allowing Cal’s insults to affect him.

“My parents might see themselves as strong and sturdy, like concrete. Too bad I’m that dandelion sprouting through the cracks.”

Libby starts to gain confidence in herself and becomes aware that she can be herself even if others try to stop her. She becomes determined and self-assured, largely as a result of creating her art cards and witnessing herself perform a selfless act, one of many acts of kindness that thematically develop The Great Impact of Small Acts.

“Sometimes

it’s possible to keep going.

Keep

going

for longer than what

anyone else

would expect.”

T metaphorically compares themself to a tub of expired ketchup: It’s past its due date but still acceptable. T knows that living on the sidewalk is a constant safety risk, and without any social support, they are lonely and feel dejected. Despite all that, T keeps going day after day, maintaining a small piece of hope in the possibility of something better.

“I had never run so fast. But I wasn’t fast enough. When I was halfway there, I watched as the ladder tipped backward, like a tree crashing to earth, my little brother beneath it.”

Jack’s memories of his brother’s death are vivid because he was the only one there and tried to save him. The experience traumatized Jack, and he hates going near the ladder or thinking about how Alex died. The novel uses a simile to compare the fall of the ladder to a tree falling because the impact was so intense, both physically and emotionally.

“What’s one day

when it’s been twenty-seven days on the street

after four hundred eight-two days of

them pretending,

denying,

refusing to believe

that this is who I am?”

T must pass a day while the drop-in center is closed but tries to see it as nothing compared to what they endured at home. T’s inner narrative leans heavily toward feelings of rejection and injustice in their family, and they believe that being true to themself matters more than trying to appease others, supporting the theme of Self-Preservation and Being Oneself. They’re forgetting, however, that living without a home isn’t a method of self-preservation but quite the opposite.

“Back to normal? Back to invisible. Back to pretending to be someone who’s not me.”

Vincent’s mom tries to hinder who he is and doesn’t allow him to be himself; instead, she believes that Vincent’s interest in puffins is the cause of him being bullied, essentially blaming him for the actions of others. She shames him and implies that he isn’t “normal,” even taking away his Puffins cereal in an effort to get him to stop liking puffins. This isn’t unlike what T experienced when their parents wanted them to go to therapy even though T never thought anything was wrong with themself.

“But that’s beside the point, because our school doesn’t have kids like that.”

When Jack is at the town hall meeting, he makes the mistake of making a claim that he can’t possibly know for sure, and it paints him as someone who holds prejudice against people with varied gender identities. He assumes that because no one at his school has announced it out loud, no one there is transgender or nonbinary. The result is initially negative but leads to positive consequences in the end.

“All these people. Miserable. So much for creating the world of my dreams.”

When Libby sees Jack outside the town hall, surrounded by angry people, she feels like the problems around her are insurmountable. Experiences like this, when it seems like negativity surrounds her everywhere, often challenge her artistic abilities and desire to create beauty in the world.

“Maybe I should stop waiting. Maybe I should do something. Something big is overwhelming. Maybe something small?”

After receiving Libby’s postcard, Vincent becomes inspired to make his own impact on the world through an act of kindness. He remembers T, who is living on a sidewalk nearby, and decides to start bringing them food every day. While this act seems small to Vincent, it makes a world of difference to T, thematically illustrating The Great Impact of Small Acts.

“Where are all of T’s puffins? Where are all of mine?”

Vincent wonders why people like him and T, who dare to be themselves and act with the intention of being true to themselves, often end up alone, without a supportive community. He wonders where his people are and why he can’t just belong somewhere. T feels like their family has rejected them and thus is having a similar experience. These feelings present a thematic challenge to Self-Preservation and Being Oneself.

“‘Do

you

know,’

he says slowly,

‘how many

triangles

you’re making

with your body right now?’”

In the moment that T teaches Vincent how to stand strong, with his hands on his hips and his legs apart, Vincent realizes that he can create triangles with his body. Because triangles make Vincent feel strong, this helps him resist bullying, thematically exemplifying The Importance of Standing Up to Bullies. This scene is written in poetic form, which adds emphasis and emotion.

“But then it was just me and my two hands trying desperately not to shake, and Alex and his head that kept insisting on bleeding. And where was the ambulance? Where were the police? Where was anybody? For fifty-one minutes.”

Jack’s memories of Alex’s death are vivid and filled with intense sorrow. He continues to look back on the moment and wonder why it went so wrong, desperately wishing that it could have gone differently. Because Jack’s family lives in a rural area, help took a long time to arrive and was too late to save Alex. These memories fuel Jack’s desire to protect the people and things he loves, like Joey and his school.

“Katherine Johnson wasn’t scared of who she was. Even if she was different from the people around her.”

Vincent admires Katherine Johnson (a mathematician) and wants to be like her, so he reminds himself of what she was like and how she was fearlessly herself even when others tried to keep her down. Vincent no longer wants to feel ashamed of himself and is ready to be true to himself, showing that thematically he owns Self-Preservation and Being Oneself.

“Two.

Could that be enough?

I try to pretend it is.

One friend who is not a dog.

Plus one friend who is a dog.”

T now has a friend in Vincent (in addition to T’s dog), but the thought of their family is always in the back of T’s mind. Here, the novel doesn’t explicitly state that but heavily implies it by the fact that T feels like something important is missing in their life even after making a new friend. Deep down, T knows that they need their family.

“I stare at the mushrooms. If a person’s soul just kept withering away day after day, would it make a sound to show it was going to disappear forever? What if it was too small to make a sound? What if it was only as big as a shriveled mushroom? But it couldn’t disappear without sending out some kind of sign, right? Even if it’s small. It’s about whether or not you’re listening.”

Libby sees metaphors in everything but particularly in natural objects. In this case, she sees a metaphor in a mushroom she’s cleaning for supper. She stares at it all shriveled up and wonders if the same thing could happen to a person. When her father tosses it in the garbage, she feels like it’s an insult to her because she sometimes feels like her parents are trying to turn her into something she isn’t.

“Every mushroom is beautiful, and so are you. I hope you have a fungnificent day!”

Libby’s cards feature natural subjects with affirmations and puns. In this case, her inspiration was the mushrooms she was cutting up for dinner, metaphorically implying that even those who feel like they’re neglected or torn are worth helping. She gives this card to Jack, who Libby knows has held views she disagrees with, in the hope that knowing he isn’t alone will help him become more compassionate toward others.

“No, I don’t have to be scared. I don’t have to feel bad. I don’t have to feel like I’m less than them.”

Vincent now realizes that being true to himself is empowering and something worth celebrating and that no bully in his life can take that away from him, thematically illuminating Self-Preservation and Being Oneself. He can be proud of who he is even though his mother sometimes makes him feel like he shouldn’t be. This change in Vincent is largely the result of Libby’s card and the positive changes that Vincent subsequently made in his own life.

“My thumbs hover over the keys. There are so many things I want to type at once that I don’t know where to start. Mostly, I want to send a drawing of a person’s brain exploding into rainbows. Because what are the odds?”

Libby is shocked to find out that the first card she gave out ended up with Joey, who is a friend of Jack’s. To learn that her efforts had an impact and even managed to circle back to her thematically proves that The Great Impact of Small Acts can come from anyone who is willing to try to make their world a better and more beautiful place.